Isaiah 59:12

12 Our rebellions are numerous in your presence; our sins testify against us. Our rebellions are with us; we're aware of our guilt:

Isaiah 59:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 59:12

For our transgressions are multiplied before thee
Not only an increase of immorality among the people in common, but among professors of religion; and as their transgressions are committed against the Lord, so they are in his sight taken notice of and observed by him, are loathsome and abominable to him, and call aloud for his judgments on them: and our sins testify against us;
God is a witness against us, in whose sight our sins are done; and our consciences are witnesses against us, which are as a thousand witnesses; and there is no denying facts; our sins stare us in the face, and we must confess our guilt: or, "our sins answer against us" ^F3; as witnesses called and examined answer to the questions put, so our sins, being brought as it were into open court, answer and bear testimony against us; or it must be owned, our punishment for our sins answers to them; it is the echo of our sins, what they call for, and righteously comes upon us: for our transgressions are with us;
or, "on us" ^F4; in our minds, on our consciences, loading us with guilt; continually accusing and condemning us; are manifest to us, as the Targum; too manifest to be denied: and as for our iniquities, we know them;
the nature and number of them, and the aggravating circumstances that attend them; and cannot but own and acknowledge them, confess, lament, and bewail them; an enumeration of which follows.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 (wnb htne wnytajx) "peccata nostra respondit contra nos", Montanus; "id ipsum respondit contra nos", Cocceius; "even everyone of them", so Junius & Tremellius; "peccatorum nostrorum quodque", sic
F4 (wnta) "super nos", Munster.

Isaiah 59:12 In-Context

10 We grope along the wall like the blind; like those without eyes we grope. We stumble at noonday as if it were twilight, and among the strong as if we were dying.

11 All of us growl like bears, and like doves we moan. We expect justice, but there is none; we await salvation, but it is far from us.

12 Our rebellions are numerous in your presence; our sins testify against us. Our rebellions are with us; we're aware of our guilt:

13 defying and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, planning oppression and revolt, muttering lying words conceived in our minds.

14 Justice is pushed aside; righteousness stands far off, because truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty can't enter.